


Stygian Alchemist

by Erikthonius



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, PJO Overlaid onto Fullmetal Alchemist, Self-indulgent foolishness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-08-11 20:17:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20159479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erikthonius/pseuds/Erikthonius
Summary: This is basically an overlaying of PJO onto Fullmetal Alchemist.  I don't know if it will make any sense to anyone who isn't familiar with both fandoms.  I'm not sure how far I'll go with it, so I'll be updating chapters and tags without rhyme or reason.





	1. The Priest

**Author's Note:**

> Does the world need a PJO/Fullmetal Alchemist overlay? I don't know.  
Do I need it? Apparently I do.  
Will I keep going with it? Probably.  
With thanks to the authors who created both of these worlds; you've given me much joy, and this is how I repay you?!?

The sun was blazing down onto the square. In spite of the heat, Nico kept his red cloak on. It was the best way to hide the black of his Stygian iron automail arm. The heat was fierce, but he could bear it. At least Bianca wasn’t suffering from the heat in spite of her immense bulk. More than one person had asked her how she could stand to wear the black suit of armor in the blazing sun, but she just told them that she had to, because of her alchemic training, and it really didn’t bother her that much. Nico knew the truth, though. She didn’t feel the heat, because there was no body inside the armor, just her soul, bonded to the metal itself. Somehow, he had a gift when it came to working alchemy on Stygian iron, and he was able to pull her soul back when her body was taken.

Nico wasn’t thinking about the heat at this moment; what he was doing was cursing his commander.

“Stupid Colonel Mustang, sending us out into this gods forsaken town in the middle of nowhere. Investigate this priest, Father Octavian, he says. See what you can find. Stupid, smug Colonel Perseus Mustang! What kind of name is Perseus, anyway?” 

At any rate, he was thirsty from the train ride out to Laore, so he headed for a stall that seemed to be selling refreshments. There was a radio in the stall, and a voice coming from the radio was making some kind of religious pronouncements.

“Citizens of Laore!” the voice boomed out. “The sun god, Apollo, has bestowed his blessings upon you in the form of me, Father Octavian. Flock to me and behold his miracles, my children.”

“Who is that?” Nico asked.

“You must be from far away, strangers.” The owner of the stall was friendly enough as he served Nico a cold drink of some frothy sweet beverage. “Father Octavian is our saviour. He preaches the gospel of Apollo, come to save us from the darkness of the Graecae.”

“What are Graecae?” Nico asked.

The proprietor just shrugged.

Nico continued, “What about those miracles of his?”

Another man said, “I’ve seen it with my own eyes. With a wave of his hand, he made flowers appear out of nowhere. He pointed at my own children's teddy bears, and the toys sprang to life and began a fight to the death, ripping each other apart.”

“Too bad for the bears,” Nico smirked, but he wondered about this. Alchemy could do some of this, but bringing inanimate objects to life? This needed to be looked into.

A small child called out to Bianca. “Aren’t you hot in all that black armor?”

As she turned to answer, the plume on her helmet caught on the radio, knocking it off the shelf (she still wasn’t used to this enormous form sometimes), and the radio fell to the ground, smashing it to bits.

As the stall owner looked on in dismay, Bianca said, “I’m so sorry. Here. let me repair it.”

The poor man shook his head mournfully. “I don’t see how you can. It’s in a thousand pieces.”

Nico grinned. “Watch and be amazed.”

Bianca knelt down, sketching a circle with the appropriate symbols around the fragments of the rado. By now a small crowd of onlookers had gathered to watch in curiosity at these two strangers. Next, Bianca placed her palms down on the edge of the circle, concentrating as she drew on the alchemical energy of the earth. She and her brother found that the earth’s energies were the easiest for them to draw upon. There was a flash, and then there was the radio, as good as new. She replaced it on the shelf, turned it on, and the sound came out, much clearer than it had before.

There were gasps from the crowd. “She’s a miracle worker!” “First Father Octavian, now this! Truly we are blessed!" “Do we have more blessings than before?”

Nico sensed a change in the crowd that could spin out of control if it ran wild, so he put up his hands. “No miracles here, just good old fashioned alchemy. Any alchemist worth his salt could do it.”

That seemed to calm the crowd. Sure enough one old man said, “Yeah, I’ve seen alchemy before. But you seem to be so young.”

Then another called out, “Wait, I’ve heard about this new young alchemist from Risenbool. That black iron armor! You must be the Stygian Iron Alchemist! And that little fellow - he must be your apprentice.”

That was too much for Nico. His eyes blazed. “Who are you calling little? I’m the Stygian Iron Alchemist!” He was shouting, ready to do someone some serious damage. “This is just my sister! I’ll show you who’s little!!”

Bianca put a massive gauntleted hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Calm down, fratello. They just don’t know you yet. Besides, we’re here for work, not to start a fight.”

This seemed to calm Nico. He said to Bianca, “You’re right. Why don’t you look around the town, you know, take in the sights, while I go meet this Octavian joker?”

“Oh, I’d be delighted to take you to Father Octavian, stranger.” This was a man in some kind of priestly robe, with brown hair that hung around his face, a nose that looked like it had been broken at least once, and a sinister smile that looked out of place on a man of the church. “I’m Brother Lawrence. Father Octavian has been expecting you.”

A few of the townspeople murmured about how wise and all-knowing this Father Octavian was. Nico resisted an urge to throw up in his mouth a little, but he followed Brother Lawrence, although he trusted him not one iota.

Father Octavian was dressed in lavish robes, decorated with Imperial gold. Gods, he wore a king’s ransom around his neck and on his head in this impoverished town! On the middle finger of his right hand, he wore a ring set with a large red stone. It wasn’t a ruby or a garnet. (His and Bianca’s alchemy teacher specialized in gemstones much the way he and his sister specialized in Stygian iron, so he knew his gemstones.) All of this finery looked a bit ridiculous on the man, with his spindly limbs and hair the color of pale straw. Still, he had a commanding voice.

“Welcome, my child! I am Octavian, emissary of the Sun God, Apollo himself. Have you come to witness the miracles of the mighty Apollo?”

Nico tried to make his face a blank. “Sure, father, yeah. I’m here to see some miracles.”

The priest puffed up with pride. He gestured, and the altar before him was instantly covered in flowers. Nico was impressed. Sure, this was some kind of alchemy, but how did he do it with no circle, no equivalent exchange of raw materials? “Wow, father! Show me more.”

Octavian was only too happy to oblige. He gestured again, and the flowers were replaced by golden ornaments and precious stones. This time, Nico saw the flash of the stone in the priest’s ring. Could it be?

“Nice trick, Father, but that’s just garden variety alchemy, souped up by that stone in your ring. That’s a Philosopher’s Stone, isn’t it? Where did a cheap con man like you get that?”

Father Ocatvian’s washed out blue eyes flashed in triumph. “I knew it! You’re a state alchemist, a dog of the military. You’ve come to defile the Temple of Apollo. Brother Lawrence, seize this Graecus!”

As the other priest lunged for him, Nico called out, “I’m not a Graecus. I don’t even know what a Graecus is.”

“That’s exactly the sort of devious lie a Graecus would use,” said the priest, attempting to grab Nico, who smacked him in the face, felling him with a blow.

“Oops,” thought Nico, “I shouldn’t have hit him with my metal arm.”

“Insolent child!” Octavian boomed out. Damn, how did such a scrawny frame have such a deep voice? “Do you think that fool was my only defender?” He gestured at a doorway, and an actual chimera leapt through it. “Behold what the might of the Sun God has allowed me to create and command!” Sheesh, what a drama queen.

The beast snarled and took Nico’s arm in its lion’s mouth, but when the creature bit down, its teeth shattered on the Stygian iron. It did, however, shred his sleeve, so the black metal was revealed. At the same time, the creature raked his leg with its claw, shredding the pant leg to reveal more of the metal of his automail, which shattered the claw as well. Nico almost felt sorry for the creature, but enough was enough. As the monster fell back in pain, he clapped his hands together and placed his palms on the ground, causing a spear to rise up, transformed from the flooring. He used that to pierce the creature, and it dissolved into a shower of golden dust.

Octavian roared with fury, and six cynocephali emerged from the doorway. “Uh-oh,” thought Nico. He clapped his hands again, but this time he touched his flesh and blood hand to his metal arm, and it morphed into a sword. He was able to hold off the dog-headed men briefly, but there were too many of them. They grabbed his arms so that he couldn’t transmute anything else.

“Chain his arms and throw him into the dungeon. I’ll deal with him in the morning.” Octavian strode off, looking smug.

“Oh no,” Nico said, hoping that these creatures couldn’t understand the mocking irony in his voice. “Not the dark, scary dungeon, full of shadows.” He still had a trick or two up his (rather shredded) sleeve.

After the creatures had secured his arms (the automail one no longer in sword form) they threw him into a cell. When he heard their footsteps receding down the corridor, Nico looked at the lengthening shadow in the far corner of the cell and stepped into it, leaving the handcuffs behind. He emerged in a darkened alley, where Bianca was waiting. His sister always had a knack for knowing which shadow he’d step out of at times like this.

After he told her what had happened, not omitting his belief about what the red stone in Octavian’s ring was. Bianca then told him what she’d seen around the town. Most of the populace thought Octavian was some kind of holy man and would do whatever he wanted. Nico shook his head at that.

“I have a plan,” he said. “I need you to set something up somewhere in the center of town.”

“How about the church bell tower?” Bianca asked. “It’s right in the middle of everything, and the churchyard is a good place to draw a crowd.”

“Perfect. We’ll need to create a few electrical pieces.”

There was a smile in Bianca’s voice even though the helmet of the suit of armor was incapable of showing expression. “It’s a good thing Teacher’s friend Leo taught us how to do this.”

In the morning, Father Octavian headed to his office. He liked the office. It wasn’t too close to the church, so he could have some privacy, but the view of the bell tower and courtyard from his desk chair was nice. He was not pleased, however when he entered the room and saw the insolent youth lounging against his desk. Still, he kept his anger in check. Good to maintain control of the situation.

“How did you get out of your cell?” he demanded. “How did you get in here?”

Nico’s face assumed his usual smirk. “I tell you what, father. I’ll answer your questions if you answer a few of mine.”

Octavian’s face changed to a bland smile. “Why not?” he thought. “You won’t live to tell anyone.” His left hand briefly touched the red stone on the ring on his right hand.

“All right, my curious friend. If you must know, my credulous flock is going to make excellent cannon fodder. Those fools are already willing to lay down their lives for me, so when I’m ready to make my next move, my lambs will be ready for the slaughter.” His gloating mood made his tongue loose. “You give people a few cheap miracles, and you have an army of slaves.” He laughed at this, a touch of madness glinting in his pale, bloodshot eyes.

“Now it’s your turn.” He gestured to Nico. “How did you get out.”

“Oh, I’ll let you know that,” Nico said airily. “But there’s something else you should know first.”

He moved aside to reveal a microphone on the desk. Then he gestured to the window now at Octavian’s back. The priest turned and looked out to see a large loudspeaker set up in the bell tower, with the large form of Bianca next to it. She waved and then pointed down to the courtyard below. The entire population of Laore was gathered, and they looked angry.

“You! You!” Octavian sputtered. “How much did they hear?”

“I’d say every word of it. I think your lambs might be ready to slaughter you.”

The priest frothed with rage. He spun about, his elaborate robes swirling as he did. He pointed down with his right hand. His ring glowed and a catapult appeared, loaded with Imperial gold. He aimed the catapult at the bell tower and then swirled to face Nico. “I’ll kill your sister while you watch. Then I’ll kill you.” 

As he pulled the release lever on the catapult, Nico saw that Octavian’s robe had caught on the payload, but before he could say anything, the load flew through the window, dragging the screaming priest with it. The noise of the shattering window caught the attention of the crowd, so they scattered. To Nico’s relief, he saw Bianca duck into the shadow before the incendiary mass hit the tower and erupted in flames.

The courtyard was still deserted a few minutes later as the siblings stepped out of the shadows to search the rubble.

“Look, Nico, it’s his ring!” Bianca called out.

Nico reached for the ring, but to his disappointment, the stone fell out of its setting, turning the color of mud as it fell. The mud colored blob seemed to melt, leaving nothing but a brief stench.

“I guess it wasn’t a real Philosopher’s Stone after all,” Nico said, a touch of bitterness in his voice.”

“Well, brother, I guess we have to report back to Colonel Mustang.” They began their trek back to the train station.

=====

Postlude

Two bizarre looking creatures lounged in (the late) Father Octavian’s office. One of them put her feet up on the desk, showing that her legs didn’t match, one being made of bronze, the other looking like a donkey’s. “Well, that didn’t quite go as planned,” she drawled.

The other shook her long mane of flaming hair. “I don’t know. Now we have a town full of leaderless people. I think we can make something of that.” 

The one at the desk laughed. “Time to play dress up.” With that, her form shifted until she looked exactly like Father Octavian.

The other looked at her companion in faint disgust, “He was an unattractive one.” She then shimmered, and in her place was a beautiful young girl.


	2. Maria (Bianca's Flashback)

They rode the train back to Central. Nico, exhausted from what he’d been through, fell asleep as soon as the train started moving, only muttering occasionally in his sleep. “Stupid Colonel Mustang! Stupid green eyes! Stupid green like the ocean!”

Bianca, on the other hand, just sat. She didn’t sleep. Of course she couldn’t sleep. Sleep was a function of the body, and she didn’t have a body any more, just a soul bound to this huge suit of armor. She couldn’t sleep, but she could think. She thought about how it had all started, back when they were children back in Risenbool.

=====

“Mamma, mamma, see what we made.” Nico and Bianca came running out into the yard, clutching small metal toys in their chubby fists. Maria Elric looked at her children, her face full of pride.

“And you made them yourselves?” she asked, smiling at them.

Bianca just nodded, but Nico, eager to show off, knelt down and scratched a crude circle into the dirt. He put his fingers on the edge of the circle, and there was a flash. Now, in the center of the circle was a crude boat made of black metal. Maria clapped her hands together with joy.

“Oh, my little angels! If your father could see this, he’d be so proud of you!”

Bianca blushed at the praise, but Nico pouted. “Who cares about him? He’s never here.” Then he handed the boat to his mother and proclaimed, “I made you a pirate ship, mamma, so they could bring you treasure.”

And so their life went. Nico and Bianca would play together, most often in their father’s study, where they’d look through all of his many, many books on alchemy, and they’d unravel the secrets of the mysterious science. Their mother would dote on them, and they adored her, basking in her praise, although Nico always hated it when she talked about their father. “That jerk!” he’d think, frowning. “If he’s so great, how come he’s never around?’

When they weren’t playing in their father’s study, they’d go to the next house over, where Naomi Rockbell had her automail shop, where they spent time playing with Naomi’s grandson, Will Rockbell. The three children were together so often that people would joke that one day Will and Bianca would get married. Whenever the children heard this, Will would blush, and Bianca would laugh. This wasn’t some flirty girlish giggle; she laughed like she genuinely thought it was a joke. Nico would scowl and say how stupid he thought that was. Then Will would say he had to go help his grandma in the shop.

There was always a demand for automail. Naomi remembered when most of her business was farmers who’d lost limbs in accidents, but for the last several years, it had been soldiers. It seemed like the country of Amestris had been in one war after another, so there was always a demand for the mechanical limbs. People traveled to Risembool from miles away to be fitted with the metal arms and legs, because they all said that Naomi Rockbell was a wizard at crafting and fitting them. Yes, Naomi could repair almost anyone and anything. Anyone and anything except her own family.

Will lived with his grandmother because he was an orphan. Naomi’s son, Michael, and his wife, Lee, Will’s parents, were victims of the war with the Titans. No-one knew how had started but Michael and Lee were skilled doctors, so they went to Mount Orthrys where the war was raging. They’d offered their aid to Titans and Amestrians equally, and one day the call had come. Will had wanted to be a doctor like his parents, but after that, he dedicated himself to becoming an automail mechanic like his grandma, Naomi. Naomi was proud of the boy and swore he’d be a greater mechanic than she ever was.

=====

They called it the Thunderbolt plague. No-one knew where it came from or how it spread, but it got the name both because it struck so quickly, and it left its victims with black marks on their bodies, as if scorched by lightning.

Nico and Bianca were over at the Rockbells. They and Will had a new game. They’d transmute bits of sand and wood into various metals, and Will would tell them which metals worked best for various parts of automail. 

“Regular gold is too soft, but if you can make Imperial gold, it’s good for military automail, “ Will said.

“Yeah, but it’s illegal to transmute gold,” Bianca put in.

“How about Celestial bronze? That’s perfect for automail with built in weapons.”

Nico decided to try it. He put drew a circle on the floor and put a handful of sand in the middle. Then he sketched some symbols around the edge of the circle and concentrated on them. Finally, he put his fingers on the edge of the circle. There was a flash, but instead of the reddish gleam of Celestial bronze, the transmuted metal was a deep black, so deep that it almost seemed to suck the light from the room.

“That’s not bronze,” said Will.

“Wow, that’s Stygian iron!” Bianca was impressed.

Will babbled on, wanting to keep talking to his friends. “Stygian iron is very touchy. You can make automail from it, but it doesn’t work for everybody. They have to be compatible with it.”

Nico gave the other boy one of his rare smiles. Both he and Bianca had always been fascinated by the rare black metal, largely because in their father’s study, there was an enormous suit of armor made out of the stuff. Their mother once told them that one of their ancestors had carried the suit halfway around the world, almost dying in the process.

Their game was interrupted when Naomi called out that it was time for dinner, and that Maria probably wanted her children to come home to eat. The children bid each other farewell, and Bianca scooped up the iron bits from the floor, eager to show off to their mother what her brother had done. 

They skipped across the field to their own yard, where Maria was hanging laundry. She turned to greet her children, but as they ran toward her, she slumped onto the ground. When they turned their unmoving mother over, they saw the black marks on her face and hands.


	3. Tears of an Alchemist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: The term chimera is used here in the FMA sense of several animals joined together by alchemy, rather than the classical Greek mythological fusion specifically of a lion, a goat, and a serpent, although an alchemist with a classical bent could put together that specific combination.

Bianca was stirred from her memories as the train pulled into the station at Central. Waiting for them was Colonel Mustang’s aide, Sargeant Grover.

“Don’t tell me, Colonel Mustang wants me to report right away, doesn’t he? Sheesh, I just got back from the last mission!” Nico was, as usual, full of attitude, and none of it was good attitude.

Poor Sargeant Grover flinched before the onslaught. Nico felt a little bad about that. Grover was a nice enough guy, having a limp as a result of the fighting on Mount Othrys. 

“Sorry, Stygian,” Grover replied. “I’m under orders to escort you to the Colonel’s office immediately. He’d like your sister to come along as well.”

“But I’m not in the military,” Bianca demurred.

“That’s why it’s only a request for you, ma’am.”

Nico bridled, but Bianca held up her hands placatingly. “Come on, brother. We might as well go.”

For such a high ranking officer and respected hero of the recent war in Othrys, Colonel Perseus Mustang, the Raging Sea Alchemist had a rather spartan office. Nico strode in with a scowl on his face; Bianca, having only the helmet of the suit of armor could not show facial expressions, but she always seemed rather friendlier than her brother.

“What do you want of us now, Colonel?” Nico was glowering, as if trying to offset the smile on Mustang’s face. He also refused to look directly at the Colonel’s sea green eyes.

“Now, now, Stygian Alchemist, I just wanted to thank you for a job well done.” 

Nico just glared as if the other’s smile infuriated him.

“And, of course, you’re sending us off on another assignment where we’ll be risking our lives?” Nico asked angrily.

Mustang put up his hands as if to ward off his insults. “Not at all; in fact, I think you’ll like your next posting. Have you ever heard of the Sowing Life Alchemist?”

“Quintus Tucker? The only man who’s ever made a talking chimera? Of course I’ve heard of him. But what’s that got to do with us?” Nico kept up the hostility.

“I just thought that a chance to work with someone whose specialty was more about life sciences might help you in your quest to get your bodies back.” 

Nico shifted from outright hostility to suspicion. “Why are you being so nice all of a sudden? What’s your game, Colonel?”

Percy looked stung and replied with a little anger. “Well, maybe I figured I owed you for the job you did in Laore and didn’t want to be in your debt. Satisfied?”

“Yeah, sure.” Nico strode out of the room.

Bianca rose to follow, mumbling apologies to Colonel Mustang.

As they rode in the car to the Tucker estate, Nico allowed his mood to improve. He leaned close to Bianca, speaking low so that Sargeant Grover, who was driving, couldn’t hear.

“I can’t wait to check out Tucker’s library.”

“I know what you mean, brother.” When the Elric siblings were in research mode, their enthusiasm couldn’t be matched.

As they approached the estate, Nico looked at the building in awe. “Gods, this place is huge!”

Grover laughed, “Yeah, one of the perks of having his doing so well at his certification was the salary he received. I hear that most of the building is taken up by the library and laboratory.”

That was all Nico needed to hear. Even before the car had come to a full stop, he jumped out and started running toward the front door. He hadn’t made it a quarter of the way before he found himself buried under a mountain of fur.

The front door opened and a small girl came running out, her pigtails trailing behind her. The girl cried out, “Mrs/ O’Leary, you found us a friend!”

An older man came out as well, but at a more dignified pace. Nico extricated himself from what he now saw was an enormous dog.

“I’m Quintus Tucker. I see you’ve already met my daughter, Perdita, and her dog, Mrs. O’Leary. You must be Nico Elric. I presume this is your sister, Bianca?”

Bianca laughed. “I see our fame has preceded us.”

Tucker smiled. “Oh yes, we’ve all heard of the Stygian Iron Alchemist. You’ve already acquired quite a reputation in our field.”

Grover cleared his throat. “Well, I’ve got to be heading back to headquarters. I trust you’ll be in good hands.” Then he turned to the older man. “Oh, by the way, Doctor Tucker, I was asked to remind you that your re-evaluation is coming up soon.” A shadow seemed to cross the man’s face at those last words, but Grover got back in the car and drove off without further comment. 

Bianca and Nico were awestruck by the size of Tucker’s library. They began pulling books off the shelves and scanning the pages. It seemed like time had no meaning. They had been there for hours and barely noticed, so engrossed were they in absorbing the information from the pages. Nico had his head buried in a particularly complicated treatise on advanced organic alchemy when he realised that Bianca wasn’t in the library. He looked out the window and saw his sister swinging the little girl, what was her name? Perdita, that was it. Bianca was swinging Perdita around in her arms. The little girl was shrieking with laughter.

“Bianca!” He called to his sister, annoyance in his voice. “We’re here to study, not to goof around.”

“Aw, fratello. Mio.” Nico always softened when she called him that, her pet name for him from when they were even younger than Perdita. “She doesn’t have anyone to play with.”

“Yeah, it’s just me and Mrs. O’Leary.” The girl really did sound sad, but then she brightened. “But now I have big sister and big brother. Come play, big brother.”

Nico hesitated. They really had been working for hours. Then he leaped straight through the window, tumbling to the ground and finishing in a somersault. Perdita jumped up and down giggling. Then, Nico clapped his hands and touched his flesh palm to his automail arm, transforming it into a sort of puppet dragon head.

He made growling noises and made as if to chase the little girl. She giggled and ran off, and Mrs. O’Leary barked eagerly and joined in the chase. It all turned into a mad game of tag, punctuated by Nico and Bianca occasionally transmuting fallen sticks into a whole array of objects, from dolls to silly hats. It had been so long since either Nico or Bianca had had a chance to be the children they still were.

At dinner time, Dr. Tucker thanked them. He said it had been hard on Perdita since his wife left him two years ago. His daughter hadn’t had any real companions since then.

The little girl protested. “I’ve got Mrs. O’Leary. And daddy. But he’s always working so hard.”

After dinner, Bianca went off with Perdita, offering to read her a bedtime story (or four or five). Nico stayed to talk to Dr. Tucker.

“So, tell me about this talking chimera you made, Dr. Tucker.”

“Please, call me Quintus. We are, after all, colleagues.”

Making chimeras, it seemed, had always been Tucker’s specialty. He’d started with the classic, the lion-goat-serpent fusion, but he’d refined the technique so that his creatures were more than just the sum of the animals he’d blended. He found a way to create a sort of synergy so that if he fused a horse with an eagle, he got more than just speed and flight, These new creatures had abilities that neither of their parents had. His crowning achievement, the one that had gotten him both his state certification and a sizeable stipend, was to fuse several animals into one that had not only speed and incredible strength, but was even capable of human speech.

“It was so promising. But then, it only said one thing.” There was sorrow in the man’s voice. “It said, ‘I want to die.’ Then it refused to eat until it starved itself to death.”

“That’s too bad.” Nico knew the frustration of failure.

“Tomorrow, I’ll show you my laboratory.” 

Nico brightened when he heard that, but Tucker, no, Quintus, cautioned him. “I’m afraid it’s not a pretty sight. I haven’t had many successes lately, and, well, when biological alchemy fails…”

Nico shuddered. He knew, better than Quintus, what could happen when you mixed life and alchemy and it didn’t go well. He thought back to what had emerged from the circle they’d made when they’d tried to…

His reverie was cut short as he arrived at the room where he and Bianca would be spending the night.

The next morning, he told Bianca that Dr. Tucker was going to show him the laboratory. It was in the low ceilinged basement, so it might be too cramped for her armor body, so if she wanted to spend the day playing with Perdita, that would be alright.

“No, no, no!” Perdita shouted. “I want big brother to play with me, too! Come play with big sister and me!” Nico laughed at this.

“It’s okay, Perdita.” Bianca soothed her. “Today we can go hunting. It will be just girls hunting. Boys aren’t allowed when the girls hunt.” That seemed to mollify the girl, so Nico was free to go off to Tucker’s laboratory.

The laboratory started out well enough. In the first cage was a chimera with the front half of a horse and the back half of a rooster. The second was a lion joined to a scorpion. For some reason he found that one unsettling. As he went further back, the chimeras seemed to be getting worse. Most of them were dead in their cages. Dr. Tucker frowned. 

“I haven’t had much luck lately. A lot my latest experiments haven’t even survived the joining process.” He pointed to the last cage. There was a body of some animal lying there; Nico wasn’t sure what animal it had started out as, but the floor was coated with half disintegrated feathers. 

“It seemed to be doing alright, but when I tried to put the wings on, it just died, and the wings melted off it like they were made of hot wax.” The pain on Dr. Tucker’s face was so visible now as he continued. “My certification is up for renewal, and if I don’t come up with something good, I’ll lose everything.”

Nico didn’t know what to say.

By dinner time, the older man’s mood seemed to have improved a little. Both of them were cheered by Perdita’s good spirits. She and Bianca had enjoyed their ‘hunt’ and she proudly showed off the present Bianca had made (using alchemy, of course).

“Daddy, big sister made me a bow and arrow.” (The arrows were tipped with foam, suitable for someone her age.) “She drew a circle, just like you do, and she made it just for me. I want to do that too, just like you do, daddy.”

Quintus gave her a thin smile. After Bianca took his daughter off to bed, he told Nico, “Tomorrow, if you don’t mind, I need to do some work, so if you and your sister just want to use the library…” He trailed off, but Nico took the hint.

“No problem, Dr. Tuck..I mean Quintus. We have to be heading back to Central tomorrow anyway, so our driver will be coming to get us. Will Perdita be alright on her own?”

“I think she’ll manage.”

The siblings spent the morning engrossed in the library. At noon, Dr. Tucker came in, elated.

“I’ve done it, I’ve done it! I can keep my certification.” The man was hopping up and down with glee.

Nico and Bianca caught his enthusiasm. “What is it?” Bianca asked.

“I’ve succeeded. I’ve made a successful talking chimera. Let me show you!” He led them into the courtyard where a large furry creature stood on four legs.

Dr. Tucker gently drew the creature toward them. It looked at the Elrics with disturbingly intelligent eyes.

“These are the Elrics,” Dr. Tucker said. “They are friends.”

“FRENDZ” The creature struggled to get the word out. “THEY FRENDZ”

Bianca stepped toward the creature as if to pet it. It looked up at her. It spoke again.

“FRENDZ. BIG SIS-TER...BIG BRO-ZER...PLAY...WISS...ME”

Nico froze for a moment. Then he turned, his voice quiet and cold

“Dr. Tucker, when did you make your first talking chimera?”

“Two years ago. Why do you ask?”

“And when did your wife leave you?”

“Two years ago.” As he answered, he began to back up.

“One last question.” Nico’s voice was arctic now. “Where is Perdita? Where is Mrs. O’Leary?”

Dr. Tucker looked like a caged animal. He tried to make a run for it, but Nico was too quick for him. He seized the man and threw him against the wall. By now he was neither cold nor quiet. His eyes blazed and he was practically screaming.

“How could you do it? How could you? You took your own daughter and turned her and her dog into this! Just like you did with your own wife!”

Tucker answered, a hysterical edge to his voice. “I had to. I had to do something. I’d have lost everything. When I did it to Icaria, she couldn’t adapt; it drove her mad. But Perdita is young. She’s flexible.”

“You’re a monster!”

“I’m a scientist. We take risks and we pay the price.”

“What do you mean, we?” Nico was furious.

Tucker laughed at him. “You’re just like me. You tried something forbidden too. Look what you did to your body. Look what you did to your own sister.”

That was too much for Nico. He exploded with rage, pummeling the man with his metal fist. The blood oozed down the older man’s face.

Bianca grabbed her brother’s arm. “Fratello, you’ll kill him if you don’t stop!”

But what finally stopped Nico was the cry of the creature, that poor thing that had once been the little girl. “NO HURT DAD-DY,” it cried in its pathetic parody of a human voice. 

The older man lay on the ground. Nico leaned against the wall, sobbing helplessly. That was how Colonel Perseus Mustang found them when he and Sargeant Grover drove up an hour later.

“As they drove back to Central, Nico choked out a report to his superior. When he finished, he asked, “What are you going to do with them?”

“They’ve been secured under guard in the laboratory for now,” Mustang answered cooly. “We’ll send transport out for them when we get back to Central. Dr. Tucker will be charged. As far as his daughter...I don’t know how much we can do to help her.”

=====

Before the transport arrived, there was another visitor to the laboratory. He made his own entrance via a hole in the wall that hadn’t been there a moment before, so the guards never saw him come in, lucky for them. He was a pale man with upturned eyebrows and a scar that covered most of his face. He spoke in a low angry voice to the battered alchemist.

“Your evil ways have made you think of yourself as half a god. I have come to cleanse you so that you may face the real gods.” He put his right hand on the prostrate man’s face. At his touch, the other man’s head exploded. The creature that had been Perdita called out sadly, “DAD-DYZ HURT.” The scarred man approached her with pity in his eyes.

“You poor child,” he said. “You have been corrupted by this foul practice. I cannot cure you; all I can do is purify you before the gods. May they judge you as kindly as you deserve” He touched the creature with the same hand. In a moment, all that remained of the sad creature was a bloody stain on the wall. The man slipped out the same way he’d come.


	4. Training (Nico's Flashback)

That night, Nico could not sleep. He thought about Quintus Tucker’s accusation, about what he and Bianca had done. As he lay in bed, he thought back to how it had all started, the events that had led to what had happened to Bianca and himself…

They gazed at the headstone. Maria Elric 1878-1904, it said. Their whole mother’s life in just a few letters and numbers. Bianca shivered.

“Brother, I’m hungry. It’s cold out here; can we go home soon? When dad comes home we can…”

Nico cut his sister off. “Don’t even mention his name! He didn’t even come home for mom’s funeral!” His voice was angry, but there were tears in his eyes. “We have to do this ourselves.”

“I thought I’d find you out here.” The voice came from behind them.

“What do you want, Will?” Nico asked without turning around.

The blond boy looked at them and asked, “Have you been crying again?” in a quiet voice.

“What do you care?” Nico snapped. “You cried enough when your parents…”

“You shut up!” Will snapped back. He bit his lip and then continued, “I was just going to tell you that grandma made dinner for you, but if you just keep pushing yourself away…”

Bianca got up. The small girl smiled up at Will. “No, no, we’re coming.” Even Nico smiled a little at that.

Of course, Naomi Rockbell looked after the Elrics after their mother died. They’d been neighbors for years; the children had played together for as long as she remembered. The Elrics had always been so happy, but now she worried over them. Nico in particular, he’d become so brooding. He and Bianca had thrown themselves into their studies of alchemy as if that could solve their problems. She remembered that their father had been like that. She’d known Hades von Hohenheim as a young man, even before he’d married Maria.

=====

The summer storms came as they always did, but they seemed to be particularly strong this year, almost as if some malevolent force was stirring them up. After so much violent rain, of course the river was overflowing its banks, so the townspeople gathered to shore up what they could to prevent flooding, but tonight it seemed that they’d be overwhelmed.

Nico and Bianca came down to where the stronger adults were laying sandbags. They reasoned that with their skills, they could help. They’d been able to make the earth raise up walls before, but every time they tried to sketch a circle in the ground to focus their power, the torrents of water washed the marks away. Finally Naomi pulled them back. It looked like the river was about to burst its banks when two strangers came up.

The first was an enormous man. He was over six feet tall, and his arms looked liked tree trunks, but there was almost a softness to his face. His companion was a tiny dark woman with cinnamon colored hair and golden eyes.

“You look like you could use some help,” the woman called out.

“You there, big guy,” one of the local farmers called back. “Can you lend a hand with some sandbags?”

The tall man didn’t reply, but the woman laughed. “I can do better than that.”

The farmer looked at her in surprise. “You? Who are you.”

The woman smiled at him. “Just a housewife.” Then she surprised them all. She clapped her hands together. The sound of it rang, audible even through the downpour. Then she knelt down and placed her palms on the ground. When she did that, the earth shook, and walls erupted from the ground, firmly holding the river to its course. (When people talked about it the next day, some of them swore that they saw the glint of gemstones in the walls, but when they came to examine the walls the next day, there wasn’t a trace of them.)

As the onlookers cheered their rescuer, she smiled at them saying softly that it was nothing at all. Then she collapsed. With a practiced motion, the larger man took hold of her before she could hit the ground.

He called out, “Hazel, are you alright?” the concern obvious on his face.

She fanned her face briefly and said, “Nothing I can’t handle, Frank.” Then she coughed up a gobbet of blood, to Frank’s dismay.

No sooner than she recovered herself than she was assailed by two children, the girl looking at her pleadingly as the boy fired off a stream of eager questions.

“That was some awesome alchemy! Was that geokinesis? How did you do it without a circle? Where did you learn that? Will you be our teacher?” At that, both children looked up at her, imploring her with their dark brown eyes.

Frank moved to intercede, trying to place his bulky frame in their way, but they darted nimbly around him and seized Hazel’s hands, crying, “Teach us, please, please!”

Hazel pushed their hands away. “I don’t...I can’t…” she looked around, the expression on her face unreadable. “Who are you? Do your parents know…” she began.

“They don’t have parents.” The voice that cut through was strong but not unkind. “Their mother is dead; their father is gone. I’ve been looking after them.” Naomi Rockbell strode up to Hazel and Frank. Hazel’s golden eyes widened as she looked from these children to the old woman who was their caretaker. Something softened in her face.

“All right,” she said, “You can come with me.” Frank was softly shaking his head, but he smiled as he looked at his wife. “This won’t be some play party, though,” she added, her voice stern. The Elric children were practically dancing with joy, something they hadn’t done since their mother died.

=====

“You’re putting them in the Labyrinth?” There was disbelief in Frank’s voice.

“It’s the only way to complete their training. I survived the frozen wasteland of Asphodel; they can survive this.” Hazel said, her voice firm, although there was a touch of doubt in her eyes.

Frank laughed. “Those Fort Briggs soldiers never knew what hit them. Still, I worry.”

“Well, you can always keep an eye on them in the Labyrinth; just don’t let them know it’s you.”

She opened a chest and took out a cloak and a mask and handed them to Frank. The mask was in the shape of the demon Minos, a creature that was supposed to carry bad children off into the shadows if they didn’t obey their parents.

Outside, Nico and Bianco were reviewing the training they’d received so far. It had started simply enough. They reviewed drawing matrices, the circles alchemists used to focus their power. Then there was the reviewing of basic formulations. As they reviewed the basics, their teacher, Hazel Curtis, had stressed the theory behind the transmutations. She was strict but never cruel.

The next phase of their training was physical. “Mens sana in corpore sano,” Hazel would say over and over again as the Elric siblings went through endless physical drills. They practiced martial arts and became skilled with weapons. Bianca favored the bow and arrow, while Nico excelled at the sword, but no matter how much they drilled, they could never overcome their teacher when she drew her spatha. She’d rout them effortlessly, laughing as she said, “You’re being beaten by a simple housewife.” Frank looked on all the while, just shaking his head.

The children enjoyed the physical exercise as a break from their book studies, but in time they realized how the physical coordination helped their minds to focus on the discipline required to master the complex power of transmutation, and now, after endless months, they were ready for their final test.

Hazel pointed to a cleft in the rock face. “This is the entrance to the Labyrinth. I’ll be sealing it behind you. You’ll make your own way out in a month. That is, if you survive.”

Nico asked, a touch of defiance in his voice, “And what happens when we get out?”

“IF” Hazel stressed the word, “you make it out alive, you’ll be alchemists. Now get going; I don’t have all day.”

After the initial shock, the dark passageway didn’t seem so bad. Of course, they couldn’t go back; their teacher had sealed the entrance behind them. But neither of the Elric children were afraid of the dark. In fact in some ways they were more comfortable in the shadows, and they always had been. The trouble was that in this underground maze, it was difficult to tell how much time had passed. Eventually Bianca came up with a solution. They managed to fashion torches out of the roots projecting through the tunnel walls and used alchemy to get them to consistent sizes. She calculated that they’d burn for about four hours each, so that would be their time keepers.

As they went deeper in, they discovered that this was as much man-made structure as natural cave. There was some kind of faint illumination, not torchlight, but a faint phosphorescence. They studied the markings on the walls and found that they recognized some of them as alchemy, but an older version. It was almost like finding an old library.

The second day (as far as they could tell), they came across the first sign of other humans ever having been there. Nico found a green hat just sitting in a niche in the wall. He picked it up and presented it to Bianca with a flourish. She grinned as he put it on her head. Later that day she came across a brass ring decorated with a skull. She was about to hand it to Nico when she got an idea. She went over to one of the circles marked on the floor and put the ring in the middle. She concentrated, and there was a flash. When she bent down to pick up the ring, it had changed to silver. Nico was suitably impressed.

The next day, they were startled to find a skeleton. Apparently, this Labyrinth was more dangerous than they’d thought. They continued exploring and studying the markings they found, but by that night their dreams were full of troubling whispers.

It was on the fourth day that they were attacked. They were already on edge from the night before, so when a huge figure burst out of an alcove, the two children screamed in terror. Bianca was the first one to identify the monster. She saw the fangs, the bull’s horns, the gold circlet. She knew this horror from the stories that Granny Naomi had told them as they shivered in front of the fireplace at the Rockbell house. This was Minos, the monster that carried children off to judgement in his lair in the Underworld. She cried out his name and ran down the corridor.

Nico took off after her in just as much terror, but somehow he went down a different corridor. He’d completely lost his way, and this set of passageways was much darker. Bianca, where was Bianca? At least he’d gotten away from Minos, but he’d lost his sister. He began to explore the dimly lit area, his eyes adjusting to the low light. He recognized the area. They’d looked around it two days ago, using their torches. He forced himself to calm down in order to retrace his steps, but the loss of Bianca weighed down on him. He thought about the disciplines that Hazel had taught him and slowed his breathing rate. As he grew still, he thought he heard a familiar voice.

“Nico, Nico, where are you, brother?”

He could hear the faint whisper in his sister’s voice. It seemed to be coming from where the shadows were the thickest. He walked into them, his only thought on finding his sister.

When he emerged, it was in a completely different part of the maze. He saw his sister, a look of amazed relief on her face, Then he collapsed onto the floor, completely exhausted. 

Nico awoke to find Bianca holding him and looking anxiously down at him. “How did you do that?” she asked.

“Do what? I heard your voice and came toward it.”

“Nico, you just stepped out through a solid wall. When I saw you, I went to see if there was a passageway, but it’s solid rock. I think you shadow traveled.” There was awe in Bianca’s voice. Shadow travel was theoretically possible, but very rare indeed. Only a few of the most advanced alchemists could do it.

It was a good thing he could, though. When they cautiously returned to where they’d been ambushed, Minos (or whatever it was) was gone, but so were their supplies. They could use alchemy to replace some of the basics, but enough food for the rest of the month was beyond their skills.

Nico spent the rest of the day figuring out how he’d shadow traveled and teaching Bianca when he felt confident. At first they were limited to the Labyrinth and exhausted by each short trip, but by the third day Nico felt confident that he could get out and find some real food. (The dry tasteless bread that they could transmute had gotten quite old by then.)

He and Bianca set up torches to cast sharp shadows. Then they sat at the edges, trying to perceive what was on the other side. Sight, of course was useless. Sound would have worked better if their stomachs hadn’t been growling so loudly. It was the smell that drew Nico in. He stepped into the shadows and vanished. Bianca gasped nervously. She waited for what seemed like an hour. Finally Nico re-emerged, clutching a greasy paper sack. He sank down wearily, but they fell to hungrily, making short work of the bounty he’d brought them.

“It was amazing!” Nico’s eyes almost glowed. “It was dark out, so it was easy to find shadow. I’m not sure where it was, but there was this glowing...I don’t know how to describe it. It was smaller than our house, but it was lit up like a palace. It had these two yellow arches over the roof. I ran inside. I didn’t have any money, so I just grabbed this bag and ran out.”

“Nico, you stole it!” Bianca didn’t want to sound accusing, but really.

“I know, Bianca. I didn’t want to, but what could I do? Someday, when we’re real alchemists, I’ll find the place again and pay them back.”

This mollified her. They lay down, able to sleep soundly for the first time in days.

Over the next days, they continued to explore and experiment with shadow travel and other alchemy. Their confidence grew, and they honed their skills. They discovered that Nico had more range in his shadow travel, while Bianca had greater accuracy and was less exhausted by it. One time, Nico came back with food neither of them had ever seen before (they ate it eagerly all the same) and passed out for a whole day. When he woke up he said he thought he’d gone all the way to Shing.

Such was their progress that the next time that Minos creature appeared, they were able to ambush it and drove it off with makeshift clubs landing a few solid blows to its sides. It was then that they decided that it was time to go back to their teacher. They stepped into the shadow with confidence.

“Well, look who’s back early.” Hazel didn’t seem to be surprised to see them. “I see you’ve learned to shadow travel. Good for you.”

Frank stepped out and greeted the Elrics. For some reason he held his arms against his ribs like they were bruised.


	5. The Scarred Man

Perseus Mustang rose scowling from his desk as he studied the report. Standing by his side was his most trusted aide, Lieutenant Annabeth Hawkeye. Major Jason Armstrong, who’d delivered the report from Central Command waited on his response.

“So, Quintus Tucker and his poor daughter were murdered?” Percy asked.

Armstrong responded, “It looks to be the work of a killer we’ve been calling ‘Scar.””

“Scar?” Annabeth asked.

“We’ve only gotten a few glimpses of him, and the witnesses say all they can make out of his face is a large scar. He’s been targeting state-certified alchemists, and you’re the only one in town at the moment, so you’ll be under constant guard.”

“Wait!” Annabeth said in a stricken tone. “You’re not the only alchemist in town.”

“I know,” said Mustang, evenly, “The Stygian Iron Alchemist…”

=====

Nico and Bianca sat on the wall, looking down on the street, the gray sky and drizzle matching his mood. There was such pain in his voice as he thought about poor Perdita Tucker. “We think we have all this power, all this knowledge,” he said, looking down at his hands. “But we couldn’t even save one little girl.” Bianca just shook her head.

Their mournful musing was interrupted. “Are you the Stygian Iron Alchemist?” This came from a man in a cloak that hid most of his features as he looked up at the pair sitting on the wall.

“I am,” Nico replied in a challenging voice. “Who the hell are you?”

The stranger said in a quiet voice, “I am your judgement.” Then he put the palm of his right hand against the wall and it crumbled, causing the pair to fall to the street.

Their teacher had trained them well, so they landed on their feet, but Nico’s footing wasn’t entirely stable. The stranger lunged at him, reaching out with that right hand of his. Fortunately, Bianca grabbed his arm and pulled him away, crying “Run, brother!”

They took off down the street. The stranger sprang after them, so Nico, attempting to buy some time, clapped his hands together. A mass of rock rose from the ground, blocking them, but the rock mass crumbled much as the wall had when the stranger had touched it.

They ran down an alley, which turned out not to be such a good idea, as the stranger dragged his hand against the narrow walls, causing rubble and dust to rain down on them. “I guess we’ll just have to stand and fight,” Nico said, clapping his hands and touching a fallen piece of masonry, transmuting it into a sword. 

He lunged at the stranger with the sword, but the man ducked under it and grabbed his arm. There was a surge of power, and Nico was thrown back, the sleeve of his coat disintegrating.

“An automail arm! No wonder my attack failed. But it won’t fail again.” The stranger reached out, but before he could come into contact, Bianca jumped in front of him, 

“Don’t touch my brother!” she shouted, but his hand brushed against her, and the side of her chest and upper part of her leg shattered, and she fell to the ground.

“No!!” Nico screamed, In his rage, he transmuted his automail arm into a Stygian iron sword.

The stranger danced back and looked at Nico. The hood of his cloak fell back, revealing a face with a scar covering most of it. He spoke in an almost analytical voice. “Your sister is hollow. Truly this is the unholy work of state alchemists. You use your arms to make your cursed circle. I’ll put a stop to this.” He reached forward, deftly dodging Nico’s sword, and touched the metal arm just at the shoulder. It blew apart. The force knocked Nico to the ground, and with a shattered arm he couldn’t do much.

The scarred man bent over him. All the while, Bianca was shouting at him, “Brother, get up! Get up and run away!”

“I’ll give you a moment to make peace with your gods,” the scarred man said in an eerily calm voice, “Then I’ll send you to them.”

Nico’s brain raced, Because of the diffuse light of the overcast sky, there wasn’t any shadow to jump into, and even if there were, Bianca, in her damaged state, wouldn’t be able to reach it. “You say you’re after state alchemists. My sister isn’t a state alchemist. Swear to me that you’ll spare her. Swear it.”

“If you submit to your fate, I do so swear it,” the man said solemnly. “My only quarrel is with state alchemists.” He bent forward as if offering a benediction.

“Brother, get up, he’s going to kill you!” Bianca was pleading.

A shot rang out, “You won’t be killing anyone today.” That was Colonel Mustang’s voice. He and a few of his troops had arrived at the far end of the alley. Then Mustang raised his hand and pointed it. “I’ll be ending you today, Scar.”

“No,” shouted Lieutenant Hawkeye as she knocked his hand away. She kept her service revolver trained on the cloaked man as she reprimanded her superior. “You were going to hit him with a water blast, weren’t you?”

There might have been just a hint of a pout in his voice as he said, “With this drizzle, there’s plenty of water to work with,”

“Yes, but with those weakened walls, that water blast might have brought them down on the Elrics as well,” Then she dropped her voice, “and what if you’d hit Bianca’s blood seal?”

“Very well,” he replied, keeping some dignity in his tone. “Keep him covered, lieutenant.”

“Yes sir,” she replied and added in an undertone, “Seaweed brain.”

Unfortunately, their target took advantage of this conversation to reach down and create a hole in the street, which he dropped into and disappeared.

“Are you alright?” Hawkeye ran up to Nico.

“I need to see to Bianca,” Nico said, panic in his voice as he struggled to his feet.

When he reached her, his face full of concern, she shouted at him.

“Idiota! What were you thinking? Why didn’t you run away?”

“Bianca, he might have killed you.”

“And he might not have! But if you were dead, how would I get my body back? And how would we save people like Perdita? By not being idiots!” In her frustration, she raised herself up and took a swing at Nico, but the damage to the suit of armor was too much, and her arm hit the ground with a clang.

“Oh great! Now my arm’s fallen off because my brother is a big idiot!”

Nico just shook his head and laughed sadly. “Aren’t we a pair?”

“You men,” Mustang called out to the troops that had come with them, “search the sewers. We have to find Scar. And some of you, help the Stygian Alchemist and his sister.” Two men set to gathering the fragments of Bianca’s shattered form, and two more helped the Elrics into the waiting transport to take them back to HQ.

As they rode back, Annabeth said, “Colonel, did you get a good look at Scar?”

Mustang smiled wryly. “I did. I’d swear I recognized him.”

She nodded tersely.


	6. The War in Orthys (Percy's Flashback)

Perseus Mustang, Colonel Perseus Mustang, the Riptide Alchemist, high ranking military officer and hero of the war in Orthys, sat alone in his room lost in thought. He let the memories wash over him, painful as they were. When he’d first joined the military, it had made his family so proud. As he rose through the ranks, he made friends, good friends, and his loyalty to them was fierce.

At first, he thought that his cause was just. The people of Orthys were out of control, and they just needed to be pacified. But as the war raged on and on, the things he saw haunted him. People on both sides did horrible things, and his own commanders wanted the alchemists, the ones who were given so much knowledge and could do so many wonderful things, to be nothing more than living weapons, engines of destruction.

It had taken its toll on all of them, changed them. He saw how Major Armstrong, the pinnacle of physical perfection and discipline, would break down in tears when he thought no-one was watching. He saw Alabaster Kimly, who was so brilliant, go utterly mad and turn into a homicidal maniac. The military brass actually loved that; they’d send him on the missions that no sane man would accept, and the levels of carnage soared. 

Percy though about Kimly. Alabaster Kimly was a talented alchemist; before the war he had a reputation for pushing limits and asking questions that others would shy away from, but now he was completely over the edge. He’d set up ‘experiments’ (as he put it) to test the limits of human morality with the same passion that he’d used to determine which compounds and transmutations would produce the most interesting results, and what piqued his interest the most was yield the biggest explosions, whether between inorganic chemicals or living human beings.

This led to the final incident. There was word of a gifted alchemist among the people of Orthys. The Amestrian army send their two best spies, the Stoll brothers, to track down the rumors. They’d found the identity of the alchemist. His name was Ethan Nakamura. He had a half-brother, Luke something. There was to be some kind of meeting tonight of many of the elders of the locals. Percy and his best friend, Charlie Beckendorf, had infiltrated the gathering. They’d kept the whole thing secret, especially from Kimly, who would’ve jumped at the chance to wreak some kind of mayhem on a such a large gathering.

Ethan spoke so eloquently about how vengeance wasn’t the answer, that balance was what was needed. Luke, who had been trained in the local religious order, was martialing theological arguments to support his brother’s statements. It looked like they were on the brink of convincing the people of Orthys to surrender peacefully when Kimly broke in, dragging a local woman. The woman looked like she’d been subjected to protracted torture, and there was madness in her eyes.

Luke cried out, “Mother! What did that bastard do to you?” 

Beckendorf and Percy looked at each other. They couldn’t give away their cover. What could they do?

Kimly only laughed. “Why I just asked her to tell me where her sons were and what they were up to. Of course, it took a bit of” and he savored the word “convincing.”

Percy was fairly certain how she was ‘convinced.’ Alabaster Kimly had established himself as more than willing to try all sorts of techniques on human beings. He was always talking about wanting to ‘explore all roads, even the ones that other alchemists were afraid even to admit existed.’

Kimly continued, knowing that all eyes were on him. “You may think you have a plan to end this war, some stratagem or secret weapon. Well, you can forget about it, now that we have this!” He opened his hand to reveal a small red stone.

The motion loosened his grip on the woman and she broke free. “My boys,” she cried out in a harsh, broken voice. “I waited for you to come home. I came to find you.” Luke and Ethan looked stricken. Then their mother called out, “I’m so thirsty, please bring your mother some water.”

The madness in her eyes intensified, and she called out “Water, water.” Then she whirled and pointed directly at Percy, where he stood, muffled in the cloak that so many of the Orthysians wore. “There’s water,” she called out, “so much water.”

“Don’t worry, old woman, you won’t be thirsty much longer,” Kimly said. He pointed to her, and the stone in his hand glowed. Percy knew what he’d done to her, and he called out the only thing he could.

“RUN!” He recognized what Kimly had done to her. It was an old favorite of his. The bastard had transmuted the carbon and the salts in her body so that they combined with the nitrogen in the air. In seconds, the poor woman would be transformed into a walking explosive.

Percy and Beckendorf had just made it clear of the building (along with too few of the Orthysians) as the explosions started. The night air was rent by the sounds of them accompanied by the screams of the locals.

Whatever peace plan that meeting would have produced was gone now. The people of Orthys were outraged by the carnage of the night before and fought savagely. The Amestrian forces responded in kind, with the state alchemists called upon to lead what was turning into total slaughter. More of those red stones like the one Kimly had brandished were distributed to selected alchemists, mostly those already known for their cold-heartedness. The stones seemed to amplify their alchemical abilities, giving them powers far beyond what they already possessed.

Percy was happy not to have been included in that ghastly elite. As it was, the deeds he had to perform just to protect his own troops would haunt him for years to come. There was the time that he and his closest companions were ambushed by a group calling themselves the Telekhinic fraternity. Originally they were a local guild of blacksmiths, but in the frenzy of war had armed themselves with the tools of their trade, hammers, tongs, sometimes just chunks of metal that they hurled with deadly accuracy, their war cries sounding more like the baying of dogs than human speech. Their attack this day was so fierce that Percy drew upon the aquifer, using his alchemical control of water with such power that he triggered an earthquake. His own forces survived, but the poor blacksmiths, some of whom he’d come to know before the conflict had turned so bloody, were wiped out entirely.

For this act, he received full military honors, but there was no joy on his face when the presentation was made. By now this wasn’t a war, it was a bloodbath. The country had been razed, the people, the few that were left, were reduced to a hundredth of what they’d been if that. The hands of every state sanctioned alchemist were so stained. The government had made a show of arresting and court-martialing the worst of them, the ones who’d taken the most joy and pride in the wanton slaughter, but Percy knew that this covered up a corruption that ran deep into the heart of the country that he’d loved so much. He retreated into himself for a week after the war was declared over.

At the end of that time, he summoned his closest companions. They’d begun to worry about him, wonder if he’d even contemplated taking his own life. Those close companions, Lieutenant Annabeth Hawkeye, Sargeant Grover, Corporal Beckendorf, and the Stoll brothers stood around him as he addressed them.

“Listen up, all of you. We’ve been through hell together, and I swear to all the gods that I’ll never put you through that again. From this day forth I swear that I will do all that I can to protect the ones that I love. In return, I ask that you protect the ones that you love, and in turn they will protect the ones they love. This will bind us all together, and that way, we can bring this country back to what it should be. Are you with me?”

The other five nodded solemnly in assent, even the Stolls, who were usually the ones to come back with a smart-ass response. Then they started to file out of the room. After the others left, Hawkeye stepped back into the room, followed by Beckendorf.

“You realize that what you’re doing means you’ll be taking on the powers that be?” Annabeth asked him.

“You always were the smartest one in this and any group,” Percy responded with a smile, the first he’d had since the war.

“Well, if you’re taking on the government, I’m behind you all the way,” Beckendorf put in with an easy grin.

=====

Perseus Mustang brought his thoughts back to the present. His team had stood by him faithfully, backing his rise through the upper echelons. He’d spent a lot of time thinking about the past, but it was time to move forward. He had what everyone regarded as an illustrious career. But this business with this lunatic murdering state alchemists had him worried. He wondered who it was. After the war in Orthys, it was hardly any wonder that someone was coming after them, but who? He’d caught a glimpse of the man’s face, and he knew he’d seen it before, but before that scar split it. He thought back to the night it had all gone horribly wrong, and the answer came to him. Somehow, against all odds, Luke Castellan had survived Kimly’s explosions, and that chicken was coming home to roost.

=====

Percy wasn’t the only one thinking about Luke this day. Many miles away, in Liore, three other people (if you could call them that) also had Luke on their mind.

“It seems your little pet Orthysian is stirring up trouble,” the first one said, an edge of wailing in her voice. “Normally I’d be the last one to criticize someone sharing his misery with others in such a colorful way, but really, Kelli, what if he costs us one of the sacrifices?”

The second, Kelli, brushed her hand through her flaming hair. “Relax, Akhlys, I’ll rein him in before he causes trouble. You just enjoy yourself here. There should be more than enough misery, even for you.” She gestured out the window to the riots in the streets.

Somehow, after the unveiling of Father Octavian’s plot, tempers in Liore had flared. The situation was made worse by the three strangers wandering through the streets, spreading rumors. The two women seemed so nice, so pretty. The man was off putting, but whenever he was seen, people started having trouble sleeping and waking from very disturbing dreams. It drove everyone to the breaking point, and the city was in flames.

Akhlys nodded in approval. “Well, it was certainly easy enough to stir these idiotic humans up. A few rumors and their at each other’s throats.”

“Someone’s coming,” the man said in a drowsy voice. “Put on your work clothes, sister.”

The first speaker’s appearance shifted. Where the figure of an ancient hag with stringy hair and bloodied cheeks stood was now the form of Father Octavian, just in time for the door to open.

Into the room stepped Brother Lawrence. He froze in amazement.

“Father Octavian, you’re alive. Praise the Sun God. But who are these people? What were you saying about humans?”

“Oops, you weren’t supposed to hear that,” the false Father Octavian said. “Morpheus, would you do the honors?”

Morpheus just stared at Brother Lawrence and said “Time for you to sleep.”

Brother Lawrence fell to the ground in a boneless heap.

“I think I’ll keep this one forever. His dreams are full of delicious pain. He’s dreaming about torturing his father,” Morpheus murmured.


	7. The Philosopher's Stone

Looking much the worse for wear, Nico sat on the train to Risembool. He was in a sour mood. In a case in the overhead rack were the fragments of his shattered automail arm, and seated across from him was most unwelcome company. Nico was still fuming over that. He’d announced that he and Bianca had to go back to Risembool so that Nico could get his arm repaired, since he couldn’t do alchemy with only one arm, and no-one else knew how to repair the suit of armor that held Bianca’s soul. When that annoying Major Armstrong heard about it, he burst into tears, sobbing over the hardships that the Elrics had gone through and getting so wrought up over “the bond between two orphan siblings.” Sheesh, thought Nico. How did this nutcase get to be a major in the Amestrian military, let alone a state certified alchemist? And now he was tagging along as their bodyguard.

The train was paused at a watering stop, so Nico sat there, not really listening to Major Armstrong droning on and on about his family and the “traditions of the Jovian lineage stretching back for centuries.” Instead, Nico just stared out the window so intently (not really looking at anything) that Armstrong turned to see what had caught the boy’s attention. 

Abruptly the major jumped up and called out the window.

“Dr. Chiron, is that you?”

Nico wasn’t sure who he was talking to, but suddenly an older man on the platform ran off in fright. Armstrong grabbed Nico by his empty coat sleeve and started pulling him off the train.

“What about Bianca?” Nico called out in a panic. 

Armstrong left Nico on the platform and bounded back into the train, emerging with the crate that held the broken form of his sister. He hefted the crate as if weighed nothing.

“What’s going on?” Nico asked.

“I’d swear that was Dr. Chiron,” the major replied. “He did very advanced research into the Philosopher’s Stone for the military during the war in Othrys, but after the war, he disappeared.”

The Philosopher’s Stone! That certainly caught Nico’s attention. He agreed that this was a lead to be followed, so Armstrong told the stationmaster that they’d be catching the next train, and that the crate (containing Bianca, who was in no shape to travel) was military property and was to be properly guarded until they returned. 

Nico wondered how they’d find the man, but Armstrong pulled a notebook out of his pocket and did a credible sketch of him in short order, explaining that portraiture was part of the “Jovian lineage.” While Nico occupied himself by rolling his eyes in the time honored tradition of the Elric family, Major Armstrong was showing the drawing to the locals.

“Why sure we know him. That’s Dr. Brunner,” one person put in. “He’s the only doctor for miles,” another added. It seemed like everyone they met had something to say about this Dr. Brunner, who was some kind of miracle worker. One common detail in all of the stories was the red flash that accompanied the medical miracles. Armstrong and Nico looked at each other. That flash had to be an alchemical reaction. They made their way to the cottage where this Dr. Brunner was supposed to be.

Armstrong knocked on the door. “Dr. Chiron, is that you? It’s your old comrade, Jason Armstrong.”

The door opened, but Nico heard a familiar creak, and dove for the ground just as he heard a twang, and and arrow flew out, just missing Armstrong, who’d also ducked back. Before this Dr. Chiron or Brunner or whatever could reload, Armstrong jumped through the door and knocked the bow out of his hands.

“No, no, I won’t let you take me back. I won’t let you take me back; I swore I’d never work for the military again.” the old man said, trying to break free from Armstrong’s iron grip.

Jason Armstrong laughed. It was (as were all of his gestures) overly enthusiastic. “Dr. Chiron, I would never do that to you. I only wanted to introduce you to my young friend, the Stygian Alchemist.”

The older man looked at Nico with wary amazement. “You’ve been sucked into that madness at such an early age?” Then he took note of Nico’s missing arm. “And you’ve paid the price for it, I see.”

Before he could reply, Armstrong spoke for him. “It’s true this boy has suffered, but his poor sister has suffered even more.” With that, he began to sob, great fat tears rolling down his face.

Sheesh, thought Nico. And this nutjob is supposed to be protecting me. To stem the waterworks, he briefly related to Dr. Chiron how he and his sister had broken the first taboo of alchemy, using human transformation to resurrect their mother, but how the reaction had gone horribly wrong, resulting in the loss of his arm and leg and Bianca’s entire body. He finished by explaining that they were searching for the Philosopher’s Stone to recover their bodies. He hoped that Dr. Chiron could aid them in their search.

Dr. Chiron gestured at them to sit around a small table and replied slowly. “It’s true, I’ve done more research on the stone than any other living alchemist.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial filled with a glowing red liquid.

Nico looked at the vial in surprise. “But that’s not a stone.”

Chiron uncorked the vial and poured the liquid onto the table. Instead of running onto the floor, the fluid formed into a gelatinous sphere. He prodded it with a fingertip and it quivered. “The Philosopher’s Stone, the Elixir of Life, the Quintessence. Just as it has many names, it can take many forms.”

Nico looked at it eagerly. “Please, may I have it?”

Chiron covered it with his hand. “No,” he said sharply. “I only begin to atone for the sins I committed by creating this stone. I could spend centuries healing people with it, and my soul would still be blackened. You think this is the answer to your problems, but this stone is the doorway to Tartarus.”

Nico shouted angrily, “I’ve been to Tartarus and back!” Then he calmed down, seeing the look in the older man’s eyes. “Come on Major, we’ll find another way.” Then he rose to leave, the look on his face softening. “Dr. Chiron, I promise that Major Armstrong and I won’t tell anyone that we saw you today.”

Jason smiled. “We needed a break from a long train ride, so we stopped in this town for a rest. I didn’t see anyone I recognized today, just a country doctor named Brunner”

When they were outside, Major Armstrong asked Nico, “You could have overpowered Dr. Chiron and taken the stone. Even with one arm, you’re stronger than the old man.

“I know, but if I took it, what would a town in the middle of nowhere do for medical care? I saw war veterans, and I grew up seeing plenty of those in my own town. At least in Risembool, we have a top-notch automail mechanic. Now that I know that a stone is possible, I’ll find another way to get one.”

“Wait!” Dr. Chiron leaned out the window. “I heard what you said. Maybe this will help.” He threw a piece of paper down to them.

Nico caught it and looked at it. “Thanks, Dr. Chiron. I think this will help very much. Now we have a train to catch.” The two of them walked back to the station.

When the old alchemist turned from the window, he saw a most unwelcome face. Kelli, or Lust, she called herself, he thought.

“It’s been a while, Chiron,” the woman purred. “I was tailing the Stygian boy, and look who I found.”

He made a move toward his fallen bow, but she pointed a finger at him. The finger grew into a spear, pinning him to the wall by his neck. He could feel a small trickle of blood run down his neck where the sharp tip of the finger spear just barely pierced his skin.

“Don’t worry, I’m not here to take you back,” she continued. “Your subordinates are continuing the work quite well.”

“Are you still making those abominations?” he asked.

She only smiled at him in a bloodchilling way. “Those idiots in the Capitol have no idea what they’re doing. Without our help, they couldn’t boil water. But an alchemist with a talent like Stygian, now if he saw your notes, he could cause us a lot of trouble. He’s too smart for his own good. He might even figure out what we’re trying to do.”

Chiron reached up to touch the blood trickling down his neck. Hoping that this demon in the form of a woman wouldn’t notice, he sketched a quick alchemic design on the wall behind him. The wall erupted into the shape of a stone horse’s hoof that shot right through the woman’s chest, shattering it entirely. She collapsed to the floor, releasing Chiron, but as he prepared to step over her prostrate form, she rose, the gaping hole in her chest closing, leaving not a mark. Even her dress was repairing itself. 

“Ouch,” she said, sounding more annoyed than wounded. “That wasn’t very polite.”

Suddenly, the door opened, and a small boy came in.

“I brought you some flowers,” said the boy excitedly.

“Harley, stay out,” the old man called, but it was too late. Kelli grabbed the child. She blew into his face, and his eyes went blank.

“Much better,” she said, a look of triumph on her face. “Dr. Chiron, you are too valuable a human sacrifice to waste, but this child will make a tasty snack unless you answer honestly. I know you told the Stygian brat where to find your data. Where is it?”

Chiron hesitated, but he knew that she would kill this child if he didn’t comply. Human sacrifice, he thought! What sort of monsters were these? Still, he couldn’t risk Harley’s life. “Let the child go; I’ll tell you.”

She laughed and tossed the boy roughly to the ground. “You pathetic humans. So fragile, so easy to manipulate. All right, Dr. Chiron, now tell me the truth, or I swear to Styx that I’ll erase this town from the map, and I’ll make sure you see me do it.”

The old man nodded to show that he believed her. “The location of my research notes is…”

=====  
On the train to Risembool, Nico looked at the note the older alchemist had given him and smiled. “National central library, 1st branch,” he read aloud. “At last we have a solid lead, and we’ll be heading there as soon as our repairs are finished.” Then he crumpled the note up and thrust it into his pocket.

Major Armstrong nodded. He didn’t realize that there was another part to the note that Nico hadn’t read out loud. “Find the truth that lies within the truth.”


	8. Return to Risembool (Nico, Bianca, Naomi, Will’s flashbacks)

Naomi Rockbell gave the straps on the prosthetic leg a final tug.

“Thanks, Naomi,” old farmer Triptolemus said. “It fits much better than the old one.”

Naomi smiled at him. “You know, I could fit you with an automail leg, and you’d be able to do so much more with it.”

The old man shook his head. “No way! I’d love to be able to walk as good as I use to, but I hear the operation hurts like Tartarus, and the rehab is really tough.”

Naomi snorted at him. “What a baby! I fit an arm and a leg on a 14 year old boy in one operation, and he took it better than you.”

Old Trip laughed as he hobbled off. “You mean the Elric kid? He’s braver than I’ll ever be.”

Speak of the devil…

“Hey granny!”

Naomi loved it when the Elrics referred to her as ‘granny.’ She’d been looking after them since they were infants, after all.

“Hey, stranger! It’s about time you came by.” She took a better look at Nico. “What happened to your arm? Did you lose it somewhere?” Then she took in the enormous stranger behind him, noticing Bianca’s head poking out of the crate on his shoulder.

“And who’s your tall friend. You know, people as short as you shouldn’t stand so close to normal sized folk.” (Jason Armstrong smirked at this; being six and a half feet of solid muscle, people usually didn’t refer to his size as normal.) “I almost didn’t see you. Good thing I’m wearing my glasses.”

Nico’s nostrils flared. “Who are you calling short, you dried up little raisin?”

Naomi reddened and came back with “Raisin?! You little pea!”

“Grain of rice!”

“Speck of pepper!”

And the glares and insults went back and forth, until Naomi reached out and grabbed Nico, pulling him into a hug, which he returned (to Jason’s astonishment; normally Nico hated to be touched).

“Oh, Granny,” he sighed. “I need to get my arm repaired so I can fix up Bianca.”

“Down to business at last,” she laughed. Then she turned to the workshop and yelled, “Will, come out here. We have a customer. Repeat business.”

Will Rockbell came out, his hands stained with motor oil. “Who is it, Grandma?” His eyes grew wide as he saw who it was. He ran toward Nico, his arms raised, but instead of a hug, he cuffed the other boy on the head.

“Two months and no letters, no phone calls! What did you do now?”

Nico shrugged of his coat to reveal the wires and scraps of metal coming off his shoulder. Then he opened his pack and dumped the fragments of his destroyed arm onto the table.

“You jerk!” Will was shouting and cuffing him. “That arm was my best work! I’ll have to start from scratch.”

“We’re in kind of a hurry. Can you get it done in a week?”

Will snorted. “Give me a break! I’ll have you set in three days.”

As he gathered up the metal scraps, he added, “You’d better believe I’ll be charging you extra for the rush job.”

“Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll have to start charging the forge. It will take a while to get it up hot enough to work Stygian iron” Naomi gestured to her three visitors.

“What kind of forge is it?” Jason asked.

“Electric. Why do you ask?” 

“Madam, allow me to present myself. I am Major Jason Armstrong, the Thunderbolt Alchemist, and the tradition of electrical alchemy has been passed down through the Armstrong family for generations!” Sparks flashed between his fingers to emphasize his speech.

“Well, that should certainly save us some time. Come with me, major. You two,” Naomi indicated Nico and Bianca, “make yourselves at home. I hope you still remember your way around this house.”

Nico grimaced. Bianca’s metal face could show no expression, but the glow in her eyes dimmed slightly. They’d spent so much of their life here, but unbidden, memories of that night came back to them.

=====  
Bianca’s flashback:

Bianca knelt by the large circle they’d chalked onto the floor of their living room and looked over at her brother..

“Are you sure about this, fratello?” she asked as she brushed a few strands of her long black hair out of her face.

Nico looked around the room. He took in the bookshelves filled with their father’s alchemical texts, the empty vase that their mother had, not so long ago, always kept filled with flowers from her now sadly overgrown garden, the immense suit of black armor that had stood in the corner for as long as they could remember. Finally he settled on the circle, inscribed with the most complex symbols they’d ever done, and the pile of substances in the center of the circle, the raw materials of a human body.

“We’ve checked our calculations a hundred times, Bianca. This will work. It has to work.”

Bianca’s voice shook just a little. “I miss her so much.”

Nico sounded more confident. “Just a little while more, sorella. Now for the soul data.” He took a small knife from his pocket and sliced lightly across his finger. Then he held it out and allowed a drop of blood to fall onto the mound in the center of the circle. Bianca took the knife and did the same.

They stepped back to the edge of the circle. As they’d done so many times, they clapped their hands together and then reached down, putting all four of their palms onto the circle. They concentrated, willing the reaction to begin.

And then it all went wrong.

Instead of the flash that always accompanied an alchemical reaction, the room darkened. The floor inside the circle bulged up and then split in two, opening up like a gigantic eye. It was an eye indeed, and it looked at them. But this eye was ringed with black arms, arms that reached for Nico, grabbing him by the leg and pulling him toward the eye. Bianca slapped at the arms, trying to free him, heedless of even more arms that grabbed her entire body, pulling her into the eye, into blackness.

=====

Nico’s flashback

This can’t be happening! Nico’s mind raced as the inky arms grabbed at him. For an instant they relaxed their grip, then they pulled him into the eye, into darkness, into light, into knowledge that flooded into his brain. It seemed to go on for an eternity, and it was over in an instant. He found himself in a field of white light.

“Now this is interesting.” 

Nico looked for the source of the voice, but he couldn’t see anything. Then he saw a pair of blood-red eyes and heard the flapping of great wings. 

“Who are you? Show yourself!” Nico demanded.

A face, a grinning face framed itself around the eyes. “Who am I?” the being said in a mocking tone. “I’ve been called many things. So much has been said about me, written about me. I’ve been called the fire in the belly, the priceless gift, the heart’s desire. People have said I’m what makes the world go ‘round. I’m hope, I’m despair, I’m the universe. For you, I’m the truth.”

Nico was fuming. “No riddles! What is this place? What do you want?”

The face grew more solid. Nico realized with alarm that it was his own face looking back at him, but with those blood-red eyes instead of his own brown ones. This thing, Truth, Nico decided to call it, pointed behind him. (Suddenly, it had misty arms. Where had the arms come from?)

“You came here through this gate. This is your gate of knowledge.”

Nico was puzzled. “What do you mean, my gate of knowledge?” He stressed the word ‘my.’

“Everyone has his own gate. Behind it you and only you will find the answers to all the mysteries of alchemy. Did you like your trip through it?”

For the first time since he’d come here, Nico smiled a little. There was awe in his voice. “I saw what went wrong with the transmutation. I could do it right this time. I just need to see it one more time.”

Truth’s grin broadened. “Oh, Nico, you have to pay a toll to pass through. Are you sure you want to pay a second toll? The first one was a bit steep.”

Once again Nico was puzzled. What toll, he wondered. Then agony seared through his left leg. He felt himself topple over. The creature, Truth, was now standing on two legs, the right one still misty, but the left one was solid. It was as if he’d taken Nico’s own leg. He cried out.

“Of course, some gates charge steeper tolls.” The voice was flat, without the mocking tone. As Nico hit the ground, the world around him spun and he found himself back in his home by the alchemic circle. He looked over and saw Bianca, but to his horror, he saw her body fading away. With the knowledge he’d gained at the cost of his leg, he knew that the toll of her gate was her entire body. His mind raced. He had to save her somehow, or at least save her soul. 

“No!” he screamed. “You can’t take her! She’s all I have! Take my other leg! Take my arm! Take my heart! She’s my sister, she’s all I have!”

The suit of armor had toppled to the floor but was still intact. He crawled over to it, the blood oozing from the stump where his leg had been. With his new knowledge, he used his own blood to draw symbols inside the neck of the suit of armor, symbols that would enable him to seal her soul to this suit, the only vaguely human shaped thing he could find. At last, he completed the alchemic design, knowing that another sacrifice would be demanded of him to initiate the reaction. He didn’t care, any price would be worth saving what of Bianca he could. He put his hand to the blood seal and completed the process. He blacked out from the pain.

=====

Bianca’s flashback

Bianca came back to consciousness. She felt so odd. Her sense of touch seemed to be numbed. She rose to her feet, but her body’s proportions seemed to be off. She looked down at herself, but it looked like she was somehow wearing the suit of armor. No, not wearing it. She was the suit of armor. She saw her brother, lying on the floor. He’d been hurt! His left leg and right arm were gone, and blood was oozing from where the limbs had been taken from him. Outside, she could hear a thunderstorm, almost as if the sky had taken offense at the alchemical sin they’d committed. It didn’t matter. Nico needed help, and there was only one place he could get it.

=====

From the workshop, the sound of Will’s hammering finally subsided. He and the old woman had been at it all of the previous day. Naomi had stopped in the evening, but Will kept going long into the night, emerging only briefly. Jason marveled at the young man’s stamina and dedication. Today, Naomi was busying herself with cooking, so Jason offered to help her in the kitchen; after all, there was a long Armstrong tradition of culinary excellence stretching back for generations.

“Madam,” said Major Armstrong, “I want to thank you for your hospitality.

“Not at all, Major.” Naomi smiled at him, but there was just a touch of sadness behind the smile, Jason noted. “I’m always happy to have those kids in my house, and it looks like you’re looking after them, trying to keep them safe. They need that.”

“They do indeed. The Elrics have a knack for finding trouble. But they have also been making quite a reputation for themselves, Nico especially.” That news seemed to please Naomi. “I know that Nico’s gone to visit his mother’s grave today. But if you don’t mind my asking, why haven’t they gone to stay at their own house? I was told it wasn’t far from here.”

Naomi sighed. “That house is gone. They burned it down the day they left for Central, the day Nico set out to become a State alchemist.”

As Jason stood, frozen in shock, Naomi thought back to the night that it all began.

=====

Naomi’s flashback

The storm outside was raging. Will had gone to bed, worn out from his work that day. Naomi was proud of her grandson. He’d come so far. She knew that he’d be the finest automail mechanic in the country. He was determined to honor his parents’ memory. He wasn’t interested in being a doctor, the way they were, but working with automail was just as demanding as medicine, and the artificial limbs were just as crucial as surgery. He’d mastered the skills in handcrafting every piece, be it for an arm, a leg, even the delicate parts of the mechanical fingers that were almost as precise has the hands they’d replace. He was even learning the most difficult part, attaching the mechanisms to the nerves so they responded just as readily as the missing limbs that they replaced, as well as all the medical techniques that were invariably needed when people had gone through the traumas that cost them their original limbs. 

The boy deserved a good night’s rest, and Naomi thought she’d be heading to bed soon herself when she heard a pounding on her front door. She rose quickly to answer wondering what poor soul would be out in this weather, but the door flew open before she could reach it.

She could barely make out the huge hulking figure in her darkened doorway. It almost looked like someone wearing armor. Just then, a flash of lightning illuminated the figure. The armor looked familiar, but when she saw the tattered body in its arms, she knew it immediately, in spite of the tangled mane of black hair obscuring his face and the horrible state of his limbs. Naomi immediately recognized the voice coming from the armor, Bianca’s voice, pleading weakly.

“Granny! My brother! Please, help him.”

She could hear the sobbing in Bianca’s voice. How was this towering figure Bianca? Nico was small, but Bianca was even smaller. Now somehow, she was the size of the immense suit of armor that Naomi now remembered from the Elric’s house. Bianca carried Nico to the bed in the workroom. Naomi gasped when she saw the blood oozing from the stumps where his arm and leg used to be. As she worked to save Nico’s life, Will stumbled into the room, roused by the commotion of Nico and Bianca’s arrival. At first, her grandson had just mumbled “What’s going on?” but he snapped to full wakefulness in an instant, paling only briefly and then joining Naomi to use every scrap of their combined skill to save the poor boy lying so broken on the bed.

It was three days before Nico regained consciousness, Will not leaving his side the whole time. At the end of that time, the smaller boy emerged from the workroom, seated in a wheelchair. He barely spoke, he hardly ate. Naomi despaired of his recovery every time she looked into his eyes, once such a warm brown, but now looking shattered. She’d asked Bianca to explain, first telling her to take off the armor. She’d tried to mask the horror when Bianca had lifted the visor to show the emptiness inside it.

=====

“And where is Nico now?” The major’s question shook Naomi out of her reverie.

=====

Nico made his way along the path to the cemetery where his mother’s headstone stood. It had been too long since he’d observed any of the funeral rites that had been so important to Maria Elric’s family. He knew that she’d have understood, but he still felt a little guilty.

“Is that Nico?”

The woman’s familiar voice pulled Nico’s mind into the here and now, and he looked over to the side of the road.

“Hey, Chiara.”

The man standing beside her laughed. “Nico Elric, look at you. I hear you’re a famous alchemist now. Still as short as ever.”

Nico bridled at that, but he was used to Paolo’s teasing.

Paolo continued in the same friendly tone, “What brings you back?”

Chiara swatted her husband and pointed (not so discreetly) at Nico’s empty coat sleeve.

“Maintenance, eh?” Paolo said, looking not at all embarrassed. “Well, Will does the best work.” He spread his own automail arms to emphasize the point.

Paolo’s arms were some of the first surgeries that Will had done on his own. Paolo had lost both arms in a thresher accident. When Will would tell people that it was the best work he’d done, Nico would bridle, thinking his own black arm and leg were better than Paolo’s steel arms. Then he’d be annoyed at himself for getting upset about something so silly.

He made his farewells to his old neighbors, who admonished him not to stay away so long. “Somebody misses you,” Chiara called out. Nico had no idea what she meant by that.

Nico stood over his mother’s grave, quietly recounting what he and Bianca had been up to since they’d left for Central. He’d just finished when a large shadow fell over him.

Nico was comfortable among shadows, but he had a bad feeling about this one. Sure enough…

“Nico Elric!” Major Armstrong bellowed out in that overly dramatic voice of his. “Naomi Rockbell told me of your hardships, of your sacrifices, of your nobility.”

Nico pulled back from this outburst, more than a little embarrassed by the tears streaming down his cheeks, but the insane major continued.

“I heard how you burned down your own house so that you could never look back. Such fortitude, such courage in two so young.” (Nico was glad that at least Bianca was spared these histrionics. “Let us return to the Rockbell home. The repairs are almost finished. In the morning your arm will be reattached, and you can restore your sister, whom you sacrificed so much for.”

He looked like he was going to launch into a long speech, so Nico cut him off, requesting that he not broadcast Bianca’s state, since it was not really good for everyone to know what he’d done. Nico was thankful that they walked back in silence, but he was not looking forward to tomorrow’s surgery.

=====

Will was exhausted. He’d been going nonstop for the last two and a half days, since Nico and Bianca’s return. He knew that he’d need some sleep before he and his granny did the reattachment surgery, so he lay down on his bed, remembering Nico’s first surgery, and drifting into sleep.

=====

Will’s dream/flashback

He dreamt about that day four years ago. He and Granny had managed to stabilize Nico, but he was a shadow of his former self. He looked so pale, almost as if he was fading away. He sat in the wheelchair, hunched over, his face blank, hardly eating, barely speaking. Poor Bianca was fretting over her brother, and even she could only get monosyllabic responses. Then they showed up.

Naomi opened the door to the imperious knocking, assuming the welcoming demeanor of a merchant greeting a customer but dropping it the moment she saw the uniforms.

“What do you want?” the old woman snapped.

Not even bothering to introduce himself, the green-eyed man pushed his way into the shop. “Where is he?” he demanded. “I came to the Elric house when I heard about a young, promising alchemist. I saw what was left there. I have to talk to him. Our country has need of him.”

“Our country’s ‘need’ cost me my son and daughter-in-law!” Naomi snapped back.

The blond woman behind him raised her hands in supplication. “Our apologies, madam. This is Colonel Perseus Mustang. I’m his aide, Lieutenant Annabeth Hawkeye.” She pulled a packet of letters from her pocket. “This is what caught our attention.”

Naomi took the letters from the woman’s hand. She recognized Nico’s hand-writing and scowled as she saw the address on the envelope: Hades von Hohenheim. Obviously, Nico and Bianca had tried to find their father when their mother died. She suspected that they’d written a lot more than this but doubted that they’d gotten any response.

Percy began again, more quietly. “I went to the house and saw what was on the floor. We saw what you did.”

Nico just looked up at him, his face blank. Bianca just kept saying, “We’re sorry, we’re so sorry.”

Percy gestured to Bianca, trying to placate her. “This is a surprise, to say the least. We heard the reports of a new alchemist, and we knew how skilled Hohenheim was, so I came to check them out. The last thing I expected was two kids skilled enough to attempt human transmutation and a boy advanced enough to bond a soul to a suit of armor. I’d say he’s more than qualified to become a state alchemist. If he qualifies, he’ll be expected to serve the military in times of national emergency, but he’ll gain access to restricted materials. That way, he may be able to find a way to get their bodies back.”

Naomi cut him off. “After they came stumbling to my door, half dead and covered in blood, I went over to their house to see what had happened. What was that thing?! It wasn’t human! Alchemy created that thing and it nearly killed them!”

“Let me talk to him, granny,” Nico said in a quiet voice. “Alone.” The colonel wheeled him into the side room and closed the door.

Will came out and approached the woman, Annabeth. Normally he was friendly, even to strangers, but he was shy around this newcomer.

“Can I ask you something, Lieutenant Hawkeye?” he said in a shy voice.

“Please, call me Annabeth.” She reached out a hand, but Will drew back, uneasily eyeing the pistols strapped to her belt as well as the dagger at her waist.

“Lieutenant Annabeth,” he began hesitantly, “have you ever had to kill anyone?”

Annabeth’s grey eyes dropped. “Yes I have,” she said quietly.

“I hate what you soldiers do,” Will said forcefully. “Soldiers are why my parents had to go away, and soldiers are why they’re dead. And now...now you’re here to take Nico and Bianca away too.” His voice broke.

“If they go,” Annabeth said in measured tones, “that decision will be theirs.”

Percy wheeled Nico back into the room. “I’m not forcing you to do anything,” he said to the boy, whose face was still a drooping mask of sorrow. “I’m offering you a choice. Will you just sit there in that chair, wallowing in self-pity, or will you get your head out of that brooding cloud of yours for once and stand up and seize the chance I’m offering?”

“It’s their choice, They choose their own path,” Annabeth put in quietly but firmly.

“If you believe that the chance exists for you to get your bodies back, you should take that path, keep moving ahead, even if that path lies through a river of mud.”

Will asked, “Miss Annabeth, why did you become a soldier?”

Annabeth smiled for the first time. Her face softened. “Because there’s someone I have to protect.”

Nico stayed silent. Percy rose to his feet. “We’re leaving,” he said without preamble and strode out the door.

Annabeth looked at Will. “Well, this is goodbye, young man.”

Will offered his hand to her abruptly. “It’s Will.”

Annabeth took the proffered hand and shook it warmly. “Goodbye, Will. I hope we’ll meet again someday.” Then she followed the colonel out the door.

She didn’t see that Will had quietly slipped out the door to listen to the conversation she had with Percy as they got into the waiting car.

“Will they be coming?” she asked.

“They’ll come.” There was triumph in Percy’s voice.

“That poor boy. I’ve never seen anyone look so defeated. His eyes looked like shattered glass.”

“Is that what you saw? No, there was fire in those eyes.”

Will’s dream jumped ahead to the next day. Nico was sitting upright in the bed, looking more alive than he’d been since that awful night.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Naomi asked.

“My mind’s made up.” Will was glad to hear the strength back in Nico’s voice. “How long will the surgery and rehabilitation take?”

“With injuries like yours, I’d say about three years.”

Nico’s eyes were indeed full of fire. “I’ll do it in one.”

Naomi sighed. “You’ll have yourself spitting blood, you know that.”

Nico was undeterred. He smiled for the first time in forever as he turned to his sister. “Just hang in a little longer, Bianca. We’ll get your body back, I promise.”

Bianca’s voice was also lighter than it had been. “Right!” she said confidently. “Then we’ll get your body back too.”


End file.
